Long Time Coming
by tath-chan
Summary: Leo proposes. Pacifica accepts. FINALLY! Request fic.


_At last, a Scrapped Princess fanfic! Naturally, I would like it better if Shannon were (actively) in it, but seeing as Leo/Pacifica is my favorite pairing I shall make do. :D This was requested by _**songoftruth **_on LiveJournal recently. Just as a warning, this is my very first attempt at anything blatantly romantic, so if it sucks... well, that's why. :P But hey, I tried._

**Disclaimer: **_This is stupid. I am in no way talented enough to be the creator of this series. All the rights belong to... whoever they belong to. ;_

**Prompt: **Can't she just finally accept his proposal:D?

**Long Time Coming**

"Yes."

"Pacifica-san, I know it's hopeless, but won't you at least…" Leo trailed off as Pacifica's reply finally registered. Her voice was softer than he'd ever heard it, and her face was turned away and downwards. He blinked, and very slowly lowered his upraised arm from its position protecting his head from the usual blow(s) he had expected to follow his proposal. "Eh?"

"I said 'Yes!' Yes!"

"You… I… er," Leo stammered helplessly. Somewhere in the back of his mind it occurred to him that this was _not_ the way one was supposed to react when one's proposal has just been accepted, but he found himself quite literally at a loss for words. He had proposed so many times, and always with the same response, that it had become some kind of routine. Not that he was any less sincere than the first time he'd done it, of course, although he hoped that he'd matured a little since then, nearly four years ago. But he supposed that at some point he must have stopped expecting any other reply than the usual one—some variation of "no," generally accompanied by a bit of non-lethal, but nonetheless painful, violence.

While Leo's completely shell-shocked brain scrambled to make sense of this unexpected situation, the girl who was the cause of it lost her uncharacteristic shyness and marched up to stand toe-to-toe with him. She just barely came to his shoulder now, but she glared up at him fiercely. "This is the part when you're supposed to be, I don't know, crying with happiness or hugging me or something!" she informed him. But having said it, she seemed to deflate a little, and looked away. Hurt crept into her tone. "I mean, unless you don't _want _me any—wah!"

Leo had suddenly bent and picked her up, spinning her around in the delirious joy that had finally caught up with him. "You mean it?" he asked, laughing for no real reason he could think of and yet for a million different reasons at the same time. "You really, truly mean it?"

"Of course I meant it, you idiot," she said affectionately. "Why else would I have said it?" She beamed down at him, flushed and giggling, her blue eyes a match for the clear summer sky above. He stared at her, transfixed, for a moment, and then gently set her on her feet. But instead of releasing her, Leo pulled her close (he was glad he'd chosen not to wear any armor today) and lowered his face into her pale golden hair. He felt her small arms wind tightly around his waist as she returned the embrace. With a sigh, he closed his eyes.

Suddenly he was shaking with a whirlwind of emotions. He laughed, but it came out wobbly and almost like a sob. "I just can't believe it," he confessed, feeling ridiculous. "It's… it's been a long time, you know."

Pacifica nodded against his chest, with a similar little laugh of her own. "Yeah. I know."

Leo pulled back, his arms still loosely around her, to meet those cerulean eyes. She looked at him with a gentleness that had not been seen often when he'd first met her, but which had grown more and more familiar once her days of fear and uncertainty as the object of the whole world's hatred had ended. Still, he thought that this expression was something subtly different… something he'd never seen before.

It was an expression, he realized with a shock of delight, which she wore only for him.

Suddenly Pacifica chuckled, breaking into his thoughts. "You're crying," she observed. As she reached up and wiped away the tears Leo had not even realized were falling she added, fondly, "You big baby."

Leo truly thought he might burst with pure happiness right then and there. He gulped, smiled, and replied: "I'm not the only one." With all the tenderness he possessed, he carefully brushed his fiancee's tears away with the back of one hand. After a while he took one of Pacifica's hands in his and led her over to a nearby oak tree, and they sat down together in its shade without letting go.

"Pacifica," Leo began after a moment, thrilling at no longer feeling obligated to address her formally. "Pacifica, can I ask you something?"

Pacifica was leaning her head comfortably on his arm. "Mmm?"

Leo frowned, choosing his words carefully. "Why did you…" He gave up, and instead blurted, "Well, what took you so long?"

Surprisingly, Pacifica didn't answer right away, and when she did she wasn't upset by his bluntness. "I don't know, really," she replied at last. "I mean, I always liked you and all, but you were just… just _there_, like Shannon-nii, so I guess I just didn't really think of liking you that way at first. I guess…" Her voice had gone soft again. "I guess it wasn't until you were injured last fall that I realized my feelings had changed."

Leo remembered very well the day she spoke of. He, Pacifica, Shannon and Raquel had been on their way to visit the King and their friends in Sauer. They were riding—the Casulls had never replaced their old wagon, preferring the new freedom of going horseback instead—through the dense forests just outside their little farming town, when both he and Shannon had sensed something distinctly unfriendly. Shannon had dismounted, drawn his sword and gone on foot off the path to investigate, leaving Leo in charge of protecting the girls. The next moment, they had been under attack by a party of some two dozen traveling bandits.

The fight itself, after the initial ambush, was hazy in Leo's memory. He remembered hearing Shannon engaged with several of the bandits not far away, and Raquel behind him calmly defending their rear. He had injured or knocked out a few himself and Pacifica, too, had been holding her own beside him, when his well-trained ears had caught the telltale twang of several bows, firing from all sides. Without a second's thought, Leo had thrown himself out of his saddle and tackled Pacifica from hers, clutching her tightly and landing on top of her on the ground. As they fell, the arrow that had been meant for her had embedded itself deeply in the center of Leo's back.

Leo did not recall anything of the fight after that, but when he'd awoken he was in one of the spacious rooms of the palace, and Pacifica was sitting at his bedside, holding his hand. Her first actions had been to scold him, and then to inform him of his own stupidity and of the severity of his injuries: two cracked ribs and a broken wrist from the fall, on top of a concussion, and, of course, the arrow. He had been hovering between life and death for an entire week, she told him through furious tears, and even the royal physicians hadn't been sure if he would pull through.

"I told them you would, though," she had added. "I told them that there was no way you'd let yourself die just like that."

The warmth her concern had brought had made the pain of his injuries seem insignificant, Leo recalled with a smile. He had been utterly touched. Pacifica had then calmed herself down and filled him in on the battle's end. Naturally, it hadn't gone on much longer. She confided with a grin that Shannon had been quite angry with the bandits after seeing Leo injured, and had taken the remaining few out with more broken bones than was usually his wont. He had even held Leo carefully in front of him in the saddle for the remaining distance to the capital.

Leo had been surprised, and again touched, by Shannon's care of him (for he was still, and probably always would be, somewhat in awe of the man), but it was Pacifica's that had made everything worth it. As always.

Now Pacifica squeezed his hand, bringing Leo out of his memories. "Hey," she scolded gently, "don't doze off on me while I'm talking to you!"

"Sorry." Leo ducked his head sheepishly. "So… that was the thing that changed your mind, huh?"

Pacifica smiled. "Yep," she said. "I realized, while I waited for you to wake up, that I wasn't worried about you in the same way that I worry about Shannon-nii when he gets hurt." She thought a moment, then shrugged. "I can't really explain the difference, but I noticed it. I noticed that you took that arrow for me, too." Her small hand detached itself from his to touch the place on his back where he still bore the scar from that day, as her smile faded and her voice dropped to a whisper. "I was scared to death that you weren't going to wake up, because I didn't know what I'd do without you around."

"Pacifica…"

She brightened again. "So after that, I started thinking about all the other things you'd done for me, or my brother and sister. And then I realized that you were the first person we'd met on our travels who'd stayed with us, who was never afraid of the Scrapped Princess." Well, that wasn't quite true. Leo had been quite frightened when he'd first been told of Pacifica's identity—but only at first. "You were always so kind, and brave, and selfless, and… hey, you're just fishing for compliments, aren't you?"

They both laughed, but Leo had been stunned once again. He had never imagined this. His own feelings for Pacifica hadn't changed since the day he'd met her, except that they deepened and strengthened as time went on and they both grew up. But he realized that at some point he really must have given up hope that she would ever return them. Although, looking back he thought he could recall a few glances, after that incident in the fall, which might have meant something—just a certain look in her eyes that he hadn't noticed at the time. Actually, the more he looked back the more obvious the change seemed, and he felt exceedingly foolish for not having realized it sooner.

And now, sitting together like this, Leo found that their new relationship no longer seemed sudden. Indeed, it seemed instead like the most natural thing in the world. It sounded terribly cliché, but it was as if they were meant to be. He knew that a silly grin was spreading across his face at the thought, but he didn't care. He was pretty confident that he could say with absolute truthfulness that he was the luckiest, happiest man alive right now.

They stayed that way for a while, perfectly content, until something occurred to Leo suddenly. "Wait a minute…" He sat up straight and looked down at his fiancée. "Hey, you said that your feelings changed last fall, right?"

"Well, my feelings had changed sometime before that," Pacifica corrected him. "That was just when I realized it."

"But that was last fall. _You made me wait **nine months** before finally saying yes?!_"

Pacifica laughed at him. "Well, I wasn't _sure_," she said with a shrug. "Marriage is every little girl's dream, you know. It's not something you can rush into with the first cute guy you fall for. I had to make sure you were the_ right_ cute guy."

"Yeah, but you… you…" Leo sputtered, speechless. Then he thought about what she'd said. "…You think I'm cute?"

Pacifica laughed again, and didn't answer. Later that evening, after Leo had managed to survive the ordeal of breaking the news to Shannon and Raquel with all his limbs miraculously intact, he was still a little in disbelief. So when he got ready to leave after dinner and Pacifica saw him to the door (while Raquel tactfully convinced Shannon to follow her out of the room), he paused in the doorway. "Pacifica."

"Yeah?" He turned and found her looking at him with that gentle smile again, the one that was only for him. He sighed contentedly and smiled back.

"It was a long time."

"Yeah. I know."

"A really long time."

She nodded. And then, satisfied that he was understood, Leo bent down, and kissed her.

**::owari::**


End file.
